The next event in the Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association's Highpower Rifle schedule is the Bob Wright Memorial Ohio Long-range Championships, held on June 20th (individual) and June 21st (two-person team). If you'd like to participate or if you've never seen some of the best shooters in the world shoot 10s and Xs at 1000 yards, you should plan on heading up to Camp Perry and checking it out. You can get more information under "Highpower Rifle" at www.orpa.net.

Typical match includes stages for iron sights and for scopes ("any sights"), prone with sling, otherwise unsupported. Most Match Rifles have front-and-rear aperture sights for iron matches. Service Rifle shooters use the standard front-post/rear-aperture military sights and cannot use scopes. Most Service Rifle shooters still use M14/.308 types for 1,000 yards, although the very-heavy-bullet, fast-barrel-twist M16/.223-types are making some headway. In this case, we had to go to just two stages, one iron and one scope, on Sunday because the Camp Perry folks canceled the Saturday events. Target ring diameters in inches are (from here):

I'm not sure I could even see a target at 1K yards, let along hit it with iron sights. I just checked the Federal web site and their .308 loaded w/ 150-gr. Nosler, zeroed at 200 yds., has a drop of 45 inches at 500 yards and that's as far out as they spec out.

Actually, the biggest problem at 1,000 yards, and what separates the good shooters from the great shooters, is the wind. The aiming black, as it's called, is proportionally about the same size all the way back from 200 yards to 1,000 yards. The X and 10 rings are proportionally about the same size for all prone events in Highpower. Bottom line is that if you can stay in the black at 300 yards prone, you should be able to stay on the black at 1,000 yards prone, if there's no or little wind. Naturally, you need to get the right elevation (and you're right, the bullet drop at 1,000 yards is large, even for fast-stepping cartridges), and this can take some doing for those shooting at 1,000 yards the first time. Once you get this for a load, and make sure the bullet stays supersonic the entire way, it's not too hard to shoot at 1,000 yards in a no-wind condition.

As I wrote, the wind is the issue. At 600 yards, most decent shooters can get on and stay on paper. At 1,000 yards, it becomes a real challenge under windy conditions, such as are typical at Camp Perry. The faster the bullet and the better the ballistic coefficient, the less the wind affects your shot.

For .308, the 175-grain bullets are generally used, except for official Palma Matches, where you must use the official 155-grain Palma bullet. The usual route for M16/AR15 types is a 90-grain bullet in a 1-in-6.5"-twist barrel.

Under decent weather conditions, seeing the target is not generally a problem. However, under the hazy/fog conditions you can get early in the day at Camp Perry, it can be. Shooters have been known to use frame or even berm holds under those conditions. Also, crossfires are much more common at these distances.

Bullet drop (according to QuickTarget) at 1,000 yards for a .308 175-grain Sierra MatchKing, muzzle velocity of 2850 feet per second, is 375 inches or about 31 feet. It is still supersonic at 1,000 yards. This severe bullet drop is why people often use special mounts with a certain amount of elevation built into them at these ranges. Service Rifle shooters can install shorter front-sight posts.

For those curious, the same calcuation gives a time of over 1.5 seconds for the bullet to hit the target. Under the right conditions and with good optics, you can often see the vapor trail of the bullet and sometimes even the glint of the bullet itself. The vapor trail is often used to help shooters get on target.

Folks here might be interested in the following. The most prestigious 1,000-yard shooting championship in the world is the Wimbledon Cup, first held in the 1870s and held every year during the National Championships at Camp Perry. The winner of the 1965 Wimbledon Cup was someone who is probably familiar to most folks reading this. You can find out more about him by clicking here.

For those interested in 1,000-yard shooting: The long-range matches are going on right now at Camp Perry, and nrablog.com has some good pictures. Scroll through the page, and you can see various photo galleries. This one is particularly good.